A prototype analysis of Spanish indeterminate reflexive constructions

Like nearly all Romance dialects, Spanish has an indeterminate reflexive construction, traditionally known as the ‘impersonal reflexive’, whose hallmarks are the lack of grammatical subject and an understood generic chief human participant. Yet many Romance reflexive constructions meeting the criter...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Language sciences (Oxford) 1998, Vol.20 (2), p.137-162
Main Author: Turley, Jeffrey S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Descriptive studies and applied theories
Grammar
Language Patterns
Language Research
Linguistic Theory
Linguistics
Reflexives
Semantics and pragmatics
Spanish
Structural Analysis (Linguistics)
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Summary:Like nearly all Romance dialects, Spanish has an indeterminate reflexive construction, traditionally known as the ‘impersonal reflexive’, whose hallmarks are the lack of grammatical subject and an understood generic chief human participant. Yet many Romance reflexive constructions meeting the criterion of indeterminacy are subject-bearing, while subjectless passives may refer to definite understood subjects. A prototype analysis allows these peripheral types to be included within the category of indeterminates. The key feature of the prototype is the genericity of the implied human participant, while the remaining prototypical features (intransitive predicate, gnomicity, imperfective aspect, atelic Aktionsart, deontic or dynamic modality, negation) serve to reinforce genericity.
ISSN:0388-0001
1873-5746
DOI:10.1016/S0388-0001(97)00027-2